The next day it rained, the snow that had fallen the previous few days being turned to frosty slosh. Shining Armour has spent the last few hours trying to coax Twilight out of her room. It was all for nothing unfortunately, because the girl wouldn't budge.
"Twilight, ya gotta come out sometime." Shining said, rapping on her bedroom door. And just like the so many other times he had done this, he was met with silence. No snort, no snide remark, just complete, painful silence. He knew Twilight didn't mean to say those things to Cadence. She was a kid. Kids didn't stop when they needed to. They were motors that ran on eternal gas.
Though, it didn't excuse the way she acted. He knew that. And he was pretty sure Twilight knew it too. She was a smart kid. He sighed as he slid the plate with her lunch on it under the door. He smiled a little when he saw a small pale hand reach for it and yank it closer.
Surprisingly the seven year old still made no sound, but Shining knew it'd be a while before she'd talk to anyone. He shrugged, and walked back downstairs. He felt like he should do something but didn't know what. Should I go talk to her? He thought. But what if she doesn't wanna see me either? The idea was preposterous, but not completely unrealistic.
He sat down on the couch for a moment, staring blankly at the tv. Shining wasn't the bravest, or the most athletic, or even the most good looking. He was always being picked on at school. Whether it was for being so quiet or just not being able to do the same things the boys in his grade. But he knew that there was one thing he was good at, and that was being a good big brother to Twilight. He pushed himself off the couch and put on his coat before heading out the door.
The rain was depressing for Cadence, and somehow made her feel guilty. Not that she wasn't already. She just felt like Twilight had taken her snide comments too far. “I just wanted to teach her a lesson.” She sighed. “I didn’t mean for it to go this far.” She rolled over on her bed. “And I called her a problem child.” She put her pillow on her head and groaned.
The next few minutes were spent in self wallowing, listening to the silent yet noisy pitter patter of the heavy downfall outside. “Cady! There’s a boy here to see you!” Her mother called out from where she presumed was the stairs. She barely lifted her head.
“Tell ‘em to go away!” She shouted lazily.
“It’s the brother of that little girl you babysit!” Her mother called back.
Cadence’s head shot up. “Shining?” She questioned to herself, then stumbled out of bed. “Uh, on second thought mom tell him I’ll be down in a minute!” She yelled, fixing herself in her floor length mirror. There wasn’t much she could do to a pink tank and a grey pair of sweatpants, but being the kind of girl she was, she made it a habit to check her appearance, especially if someone of the opposite gender was at her door.
She shoved her feet in a pair of slipper boots, then made her way downstairs. At the kitchen table chewing on a cookie and sipping on some water was Shining Armour who looked about just as nervous as she felt. “Hey.” She waved awkwardly. After all, she had pretty much dismissed him and his sister the day before.
He nodded, swallowing. “Hey.”
Awkward silence settled in, the only sound being water from Shining’s hair dripping onto the floor.
Cadence was trying so hard not to breakdown, or get on her knees and beg for forgiveness. She knew that it was a stupid thing to do, since, he wasn't the one she needed to apologize to, but after all, he was her crush, and she felt like she let him down too.
“How’d you know where I live?” She decided to ask. Since it a legitimate question and she seriously wanted to know. He gave her a confused look, before he blushed.
“I, uh, pass your house on the way to work.” He scratched his neck. As much as he didn’t want it to seem like it, it really looked like he was stalking her. He tried to look her in the eye, but found his eyes wandering towards the thin camisole she was wearing. It was scrunched up at the bottom, so every time she moved a bit of tan skin showed. When she stretched, he also saw that she wasn’t wearing a bra. Down, boy. he thought, putting his hands on the front of his pants.
“Oh. Makes sense. So, what did you want to talk about? I’m sure you didn’t just come here to mooch off of me.” Cadence laughed, then leaned on the counter. Shining really wished she hadn’t done that. He could get a full view of her chest. His hands reflexively pressed down even more on the front of his pants.
She smiled, and he smiled back. “Well, it’s uh, Twilight.” He answered nervously.
Her smiled faltered, and she sat in the stool across from him. “Oh.” She looked distraught, and he didn’t blame her. “I really didn’t mean to hurt her feelings...I just wanted to teach her a lesson. About you know, appreciating the people she has around her, y’know? Poor squirt...she must be crushed.”
“You did what you felt was right.” Shining assured, reaching out to rub her arm affectionately. A spark surged between them, and both of them stared at each other for what seemed like ages before they both pulled away. Whatever that was, had both their hearts racing.
“A-Anyway,” Shining recovered, “She really misses you. I just wanted to tell you that. It’s understandable if you don’t wanna come back but she needs you.” I need you. He thought and almost added. He gave her a pleading look.
She opened her mouth, about to answer, but before she could, a rock song she vaguely knew broke through their silence. Shining Armour gave her an apologetic look which she nodded too as he pressed the answer button on his phone. She let out a sigh as her body relaxed. That didn’t last long because it tensed up again the minute Shining stood up yelling, “What?!”
She walked around the island to give him a quizzical look, that turned to panic when she saw the white hot fear in his eyes. “O-Okay. I’m leaving now.” He answered before he hung up. He started to gather his coat.
“What?! What happened?!” She asked as he threw his coat and hat on. He was moving so fast that she was having trouble keeping up with him.
“Twily’s missing. She’s not in her room.” He responded, shoving his hands in his gloves.
“W-Well do they know she is, or where she could have gone?” She asked, shaking. Twilight was a smart kid but there was no way she could survive on the street by herself. She could be smart all she wanted. She was still a child and there were things she still didn’t know about the outside world.
“Nope.” He answered.
“Well you can’t just go out in rain like that looking for her on a bike! You’ll catch a cold!” Cadence protested. “Let me come with you! We can look for her in my car! This is my fault anyway...” She added. She really hoped Twilight was okay.
Shining put a hand on her shoulder. "What happened yesterday doesn't matter now. What matters is finding Twilight and making sure she's safe."
Cadence nodded, smiling warmly at him before grabbing her car keys off the table by the door. Shining Armour was right. The only thing that mattered right now was finding Twilight. Whatever happens later will happen later. Cadence shoved her arms into her hoodie sleeves. She just hoped that Twilight knew what she was doing.
“Goddamit, I think I turned the wrong corner.” Twilight mumbled as she pulled the hood of her purple hoodie over her face. The downpour was relentless. Her vision was blurred by the onslaught and her line of sight was skewed by her hood. She had been wandering around for about thirty minutes now.
She really had no idea where she was going, all she knew is that she was looking for Cadence. “You’d think someone as smart as me would pay attention to a detail as minuscule as a freaking address.” She huffed, stuffing her freezing pale hands in her hoodie pockets.
Twilight turned another corner and felt herself slam into something hard. “Okay, either that was a pole or-” Her hood was yanked off by a slim tanned hand, causing her to look up at the face that belonged to it. “A nimrod. Hello, Rainbow Dash.” She greeted sarcastically.
“Sparkle.” Rainbow gritted dryly.
“Do we have to do this now? Because I would love to get on with my day without having to see your ugly face.” Twilight retorted, folding her arms.
Rainbow grabbed at her hoodie and lifted her in the air, which wasn’t really high because she was a tad shorter than Twilight. “I hope that stupid babysitter of yours has some bandages for you because I’m gonna mess you up real nice.” She sneered.
Twilight snorted. “Okay first, that’s not even proper English. ‘Mess you up real nice’ isn’t an oxymoron. It’s just a poorly conceived sentence. Second, Cadence Mi Amore Cadenza has nothing to do with the petty crime of which you are about to commit.”
Rainbow growled and threw Twilight into the wet grass of a neighbouring lawn. Twilight landed with a thud and groaned. “Yep, now I see what everyone’s talking about with my smart mouth.” She grumbled, rubbing her sore bum. “Y’know I still have a black eye because of your aggressive urges to be a complete wench.” She growled, rolling over as Dash tried to lay a punch on her. She pushed the slightly stronger girl before punching her in the stomach.
With her opponent reeling from the hit, the prodigy took the opportunity to dust herself off and high tail it out of there. She took off down the street, knowing she didn’t have much time before Rainbow would recover. The girl may have been shorter than her but she was one of the strongest and fastest kids in their school. She would be on her tail in no time.
Twilight turned another corner before (difficulty) hopping a few fences. She had finally stopped running to catch her breath once she was sure that Rainbow would never find her. She looked around herself, to see the rain was letting up. She sighed a breath of relief, but immediately sucked it back in when she realized she had no idea where she was. “Well now,” She said, sitting down on a curb under a blinking street light. “I’m lost.” She paused, then frowned when the rain started once again.
“God freaking dammit.”